You know an organisation has done a good job in embedding their vision when you hear their leaders and their employees all using the same language to describe their company and its future. Written communications and conversations with leaders all contain some link to key strategies or values fundamental to the future state.
There is consistency in messaging, and well-skilled leaders know how to reframe someone’s negative statements or questions back into the perspective of the compelling vision. They don’t get distracted by the problems, nor do they allow themselves to be drawn into the negative statements about why things won’t work, why it’s not possible, or everything that could go wrong.
It’s not that they don’t address problems, nor are they pretending that risks and issues don’t exist. They certainly get addressed. But that’s not where their focus lies.
To use an old saying, “they keep their eyes on the prize”.
And that’s a great approach that we can apply in our own lives. But first we have to overcome our conditioning that keeps us looking for, and finding, why things won’t work, why what we want isn’t possible, and putting our attention to anything and everything that might go wrong.
For most of us, we’ve never even noticed that our standard ‘go-to’ position when someone shares an idea with us is to list off all the things that they should watch out for, all the things that could go wrong, and come up with all the reasons that idea just won’t work.
For most of us, that is our default position. That is, until we notice that this is what we do.
And that’s a pretty big step. To catch yourself out jumping straight to the negative.
Staying focused on what could go wrong is the best way to guarantee staying stuck in our current circumstances. Our energy goes into where our focus is. So, if you continue to focus on the problems, your energy will keep you mulling around in those problems. But shift your focus onto your goals, then your energy will propel you towards those goals. Dealing with any actual problems will be by-the-by. You’ll deal with them, but you won’t put any more energy into them than is required because your energy will be directed at moving you toward what you are focused on: achieving your goal.
